Originally posted by SoloQGames:

i guess you can't just start a server, you have to be online for the server to work or buy a dedicated one. seems janky

I don't understand your complaint, you seem to either want a service that is impossible given the laws of physics as we understand it, or one that is already provided free by Valheim. Servers require power to run, if your Computer is off, the server is off. You can host a dedicated server on your home computer and play valheim at the same time on the same machine as long as you got something better than a Turnip PC. You just have to leave the PC on but you don't need to be physically online in game for it to work, you just have to keep the separate Valheim Dedicated Server app running on the machine. Your friends can then join the server as long as it's kept up by you.

or are you asking for like LAN/Split screen, because that's the only other Offline multiplayer that exists.